Eco-materials for Arsenium and Selenium Removal from Aqueous Solutions

Environmental engineering have a great importance because is dealing with different fields, most important of them being water resource protection. It is well known that natural waters and especially groundwater contain dissolved substances, most of them unharmful for human and animal life, but some of them still potentially harmful. Ground waters containing dissolved arsenic and/or selenium are harmful and not suitable for human an animal life. Selenium represents a human life prerequisite microelement which can become toxic when higher quantities are ingested or accumulated. In comparison arsenic has an acute toxic effect over the human body even when very low quantities are ingested. In both cases the maximum amount were limited by OMS at 10 mu g L-1. A new technique was used to produce an ecofriendly composite material by doping graphite with iron oxide, which was used for retention of arsenic and selenium from aqueous solutions. Synthesized material was characterized using SEM, EDX, XRD and DTA. Adsorption capacity and adsorption mechanism were established through equilibrium studies. Maximum adsorption capacity was 400 mu g As(V) and 625 mu g Se(VI) per gram of adsorbent.